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G. ASHOK KUMAR, V. SAILAJA*, P.V. SATYAGOPAL AND S.V. PRASAD
Department of Agricultural Extension, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati-517502
Rice is the most important staple food crop for about two thirds of the population. The recent break through in rice cultiva-tion known as System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method is the one which can be considered as a new system of rice cultivation for increasing productivity with a comprehensive package of practices involving less seed, less water , less chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The present study was conducted in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. This district was purposively selected for the study because it is one of the leading rice producing districts of Tamil Nadu and also it ranked first in SRI paddy coverage for the period of 2011-12. Out of eleven blocks from the Nagapattinam district four blocks and three villages from each selected block were purposively selected according to the highest area under SRI. From each village ten SRI farmers were selected by following simple random sampling procedure, thus making a total of 120 respondents. The study revealed that education, train-ing undergone, social participation, extension contact, economic motivation, scientific orientation, management orientation, achievement motivation, innovativeness, mass media exposure and risk orientation were found to be positively significant with their extent of adoption of SRI technology. Age and farming experience were found negatively and significantly related whereas land holding had non-significant relationship with their extent of adoption of SRI technology. Further the association between various attributes with production level of paddy among SRI practicing farmers revealed that education, farming experience, training undergone, extension contact, scientific orientation, innovativeness, mass media exposure and risk orientation were found to be significant with production level of paddy whereas age, land holding, social participation, economic motivation, management orientation and achievement motivation had showed non-significant association with production level of paddy among SRI practicing farmers.
Extent of adoption, production levels, SRI technology, rice